The new bistro — which Morrissey designed as well — is a partnership with Takia Evans and her husband, Jahri Evans, a football star with Frankford High, then with Bloomsburg University, and later an all-pro guard with the Saints (for whom he won a Super Bowl ring) and the Packers.

SOMO SoPhi (short for South Philadelphia and pronounced "soh-mo soh-fee") has outdoor seating on the Packer Avenue side (Medora's glassed-in enclosure is gone) and a first-floor bar with green moss on the back wall to add a pop of color, beside a separate lounge with comfy furniture and multiple TVs.

On the second floor are a 60-seat dining room with an antique mirror ceiling, board-formed concrete walls, and Steampunk-inspired pewter globe chandeliers, a small service bar, and the open kitchen (framed with antique bubble glass).

There also is a heated, covered terrace just outside, providing a truly Philly vantage point: the Center City skyline in the distance, as well as traffic zipping on the approach to the Walt Whitman Bridge.

A private dining room with a second kitchen are planned for the third floor, which once was an apartment.

His dinner menu includes small and medium plates, salads, and pastas, all $19 and under. Large plates made for sharing include a 38-ounce porterhouse with duck fat fingerling potatoes, creamed truffles and Swiss chard, onion jam, and Burgundy sauce for $60 and a whole Lancaster County chicken with local succotash, potato filling, and mustard jus for $38.

Bar includes 24 draft beers, 14 wines by the glass, and cocktails. Also offered are wines from Napa's ONEHOPE Winery. The Evanses have a charitable partnership with founder Jake Kloberdanz.